Eric Holder calls for study of TSA role in airport security

Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that the government should examine the TSA’s role in protecting airports following Friday’s fatal shooting of a TSA agent at Los Angeles International Airport.

“The function of TSA is to ensure that people can board planes safely,” Holder said at a press conference. “And take flights safely. The responsibility for protecting airport security is not a TSA function, but something I think we need to certainly examine.”

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TSA security screeners, who aren’t armed and lack arrest powers, are responsible for making sure weapons, bombs or other dangerous materials don’t get on board passenger aircraft. Airport or local police agencies typically handle any crimes committed in an airport.

“The investigation’s obviously under way and a part of that investigation will be to review the security measures that were in place, not only at LAX, but I think a review of the security arrangements that exist in other airports, as well,” Holder said.

Federal prosecutors in California have charged Paul Ciancia, 23, with murdering the TSA agent, 39-year-old Gerardo Hernandez. Two other TSA agents were wounded in the shooting, as was one passenger. California officials have suggested Ciancia was specifically targeting TSA agents, citing notes he was carrying with him.

Asked if anger at the government was behind the shooting, Holder said more investigation was necessary.

“We have to have a fuller understanding of the person we now have in custody to understand what it is it might have been. Whatever those motives, it certainly doesn’t justify what occurred,” he said. “A brave TSA agent was killed. Others were injured. No feelings about the government can possibly justify those kinds of actions.”

Ciancia, who was shot by airport police officers, remains in critical condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles Times.